Nanny’s photos reveal more of JFK family life
In November 1963 Maud Shaw was given an impossible task.
She was nanny to John F Kennedy’s children and, moments after the president died, Jackie Kennedy’s mother asked Shaw to break the news to his kids.
‘‘Please, no,’’ she begged. ‘‘I can’t take a child’s last happiness.’’
But Jackie’s mother insisted, believing the burden would be too much for Jackie to bear.
So with Caroline not yet 6 years old and John Jr not yet 2, Shaw reached for a way to say it, the Washington Post’s Michael Powell reported in 1999. ‘‘Your father has gone to look after Patrick,’’ Shaw said about the baby the Kennedys lost the previous summer. ‘‘Pat- rick was so lonely in heaven. He didn’t know anybody there. Now he has the best friend anybody could have.’’ ‘‘Did Daddy take his big plane with him?’’ John Jr said. Yes, Shaw told him. ‘‘I wonder when he’s coming back,’’ John pondered. Some of Shaw’s mementos from her time in the White House are up for auction online, with bidding ending today.
Shaw was the Kennedys’ nanny for seven years until she retired in 1965. The next year she published a memoir White House Nanny: My Years with Caroline and John Kennedy Jr. She wrote, among other things, about how she was given the first lady’s maternity dress – a white, sleeveless sundress.
The collection of mementos includes a signed copy of the memoir and the maternity dress, and 79 candid photographs of the first lady and her two children during Shaw’s time with them, showing moments they shared at the beach, pony rides and walks in the park with the family dog.